Why Some People Are Ditching Baby Announcements

Over the past few years, the tradition of pregnancy announcements has gotten bigger and bigger. From social media posts to fun photoshoots, announcing a pregnancy has been something many soon-to-be parents look forward to. Recently, though, there has been a bit of a shift regarding baby announcements. More and more people are choosing not to announce their pregnancy at all. Some parents are opting to share their news on social media after the baby arrives.

Plenty of celebrities have followed this trend. In 2018, Kylie Jenner kept her pregnancy with Stormi under wraps until after she was born. Her official announcement video racked up millions of views on YouTube. Last year, Paris Hilton and her husband Carter Reum welcomed their son Phoenix, and eleven months later, they announced the birth of their daughter London. Hilton waited one week after her son’s birth to share the news with her friends and family. During an episode of I Am Paris in February of last year, she said her life has been so public and she never really had anything be just hers.

Other celebrities who decided not to announce their pregnancy until after birth include Ashley Olsen and Louis Eisner, Chrissy Teigen and John Legend, Macaulay Culkin and Brenda Song, Rebel Wilson, Ed Sheeran, and Kane and Katelyn Brown. Most recently, singer Halle Bailey and her boyfriend DDG welcomed their son Halo after keeping it a secret.

Some people feel that everyone that needs to know already does and might not feel the need to tell the world. A woman shared with the Washington Post, that when she was about 12 weeks pregnant with her first child, she posted a picture-perfect Instagram announcement featuring ultrasound photos and a knit gray "NEW TO THE CREW" onesie. But when she became pregnant a second time, it was an ectopic pregnancy. Then she had another miscarriage after that. And four years later, she skipped sharing anything about another pregnancy. Instead, she announced her daughter’s arrival by sharing a newborn photo with the caption "Surprise!"

Another reason people prefer to keep their pregnancy news off of social media is that they’re more aware of how the news could unintentionally hurt someone else. Many people struggle with getting pregnant and sometimes seeing pregnancy announcements online can emotionally trigger someone who is still trying to conceive.

Some people may just want to savor the moment before telling the world.

What is "sharenting?" According to the Oxford English Dictionary, sharenting is when parents post pictures and other content about their children on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Some people love sharenting, so we won't be "sharent shaming" here. There are plenty of parents who love posting every little bit of parenthood, from ultra-sound photos to your baby’s first steps. However, some people feel that posting an announcement is the beginning of creating a social media presence for their child. There are expecting parents who see it as potentially teetering between respecting their child’s privacy and oversharing moments with them.

Whether you choose to announce or not announce a pregnancy, remember that it’s a personal choice.

Selecting a baby name can be tough, especially with thousands of options available. Some parents stress over the lasting influence of their child's name, wanting to ensure a prosperous future. Trends in naming kids mirror shifting cultural norms and evolving ambitions for children.

Getting baby names right has taken on a new level of importance for expecting parents. In fact, TikTok has become a platform where creators gather substantial followings by discussing baby name trends and highlighting names to avoid due to their trendiness. They openly share names they considered but didn't use, along with names they'd rather not encounter again. TikTok's baby name inspiration videos now focus on various themes, including "old money" names such as Caroline, Elizabeth, and Charlotte, "main character" names like Blaze, Arrow, and Falcon, and "aesthetic" names like Rowan, Wren, and Atlas.

Celebrities are accustomed to unconventional names. Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO, and musician Grimes named their first child X Æ A-12, often called "X." Their second child is Exa Dark Sideræl. They also affectionately refer to their daughter as Sailor Mars, inspired by the "Sailor Moon" manga series.

Occasionally, parents opt to invent a name, a decision that carries some level of uncertainty. While they might create something distinctive and appealing, there's also a chance of the child being given a name perceived as peculiar by others. This situation arose for a baby, drawing significant attention on Reddit. The name of the child came to light through a thread titled, "The Most Unusual Name I've Encountered in Real Life."

It reads, "So my mother just told me the name of her ex’s child and my GOD is it a doozy. He and his wife named their daughter: Audtom. Because his name is Tom and her name is Audrey. I could not f---ing believe my ears."

Commenters had strong opinions, with many criticizing the name choice. Others suggested more seamless ways to combine the parents' names, including one person who wrote, "Assuming this is pronounced 'Autumn' and not 'Odd-Tom,' would it have killed them to just spell it Autom?"

Another person suggested, "Not me thinking 'Tomrey' would be better," and another joked, "They missed an opportunity: 'Tawdry.'”

Redditors even came up with baby names that they considered to be the worst. Take a look at some of these names below.

"When I was a kid I stayed at a bed & breakfast with family photos on the walls," one user wrote. "There was a sister named Gridget. I actually think about this a lot." It's kind of like a spin on the name Bridget. This Redditor seems really stuck on the name they found.

This unique name caught this person off guard. They even tried to figure it out by mixing it with other names. "I once saw a baby announcement where the mom was named Shannon, the dad was Daniel, and they named the baby Shanniel," they wrote.

Sometimes people just go with the flow when picking a name for their kid. Maybe it felt right at the time, and they didn't even realize it's also the name of a condition. While working at a gas station, this Reddit user observed a mother who let her child run around wild. They wrote "One small girl was pushing on a display stand and the mother screamed: ‘DYSLEXIA GET YO A-- OVER HERE!"

Back in school on the playground, this person probably had a rough time. This is particularly true because their name coincidentally rhymes with a sexually transmitted disease. Nevertheless, a user pointed out that it's a clever fusion of two names. "Donnaria. A combination of her Mom's name (Donna) and Grandma's name (Gloria)," they wrote.

Bacardi, Hennessy, Tanqueray, Alizé – the names keep coming. It turns out a Redditor, who happened to work in children and family services, encountered kids with names inspired by alcoholic beverages almost every day. "You don't know how bad it really gets. Lots of kids named after alcoholic beverages."